‘Black Label’ purges the world of even more bad guys, then skips off to the onsen for some R&R.
There’s actually quite a bit of casual storytelling in the first half of the episode. We get to see a bit of Oriha in her adorably annoying idol mode, and a bit of character exposition for the ultra busty surgeon / katana wielding Yuuko.
(note: so much for Oriha being a fatty…)
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Alright, time for the caricatured bad guys to show up.
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Time for Yuuko to kick some ass.
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It isn’t explained in the episode, but Yuuko’s hair color changes from Brown to Pink as if to signal a DBZ-esque power up. Moments later, the bad guys pop like water balloons.
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(Not pictured: a lot of dismembering, exploding bodes, and mass death for the bad guys.)
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The meddlesome detective from the first episode walks into a trap and is badly hurt. His busty female protege is apprehended by about twenty or so stooges with bad intentions. We get a fully clothed boob grope scene here as the bad guys talk about far worse things to come. Which of course never happens since Black Label blows them all to kingdom come.
This scene probably didn’t need to be censored, but was well drawn and seemed sort of sexy, if you can get past the ‘rapey’ part.
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Of all the Black Label members, Sayo with her harsh demeanor and affinity for heavy weaponry is the most imposing. Sayo and Yuuko combine to send an escaping car airborne and then slice it in half. Yuuko is careful to not look at explosions.
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Oriha celebrates after obliterating the bad guy’s helicopter and clinching another victory. The pesky detective is certainly in a world of hurt after being stabbed, but his assistant is trying her best to make him feel like life is worth living.
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The action wraps up with a few minutes to spare. You can probably guess what happens next:
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Here’s the last pic with a bit of filtering to show the outlines a bit better:
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This bath scene was taken almost verbatim from volume two of the tankobon. Hopefully the shot with Yuuko and Miki is screen cropped, because as is Yuuko’s nipples would barely show, if at all. It would be a shame to squander one of the better nude shots from the manga (I have little doubt Xebec will deliver).
Overall, this was another nice episode which succeeds as an action anime first and foremost. The nudity and service are of high quality but never dominate, they simply compliment the action sequences and absurd premise precisely the way they did in the manga.
While it’s true that the art style can’t do Shoji Sato’s style justice, the storyboarding so far has done a great job of capturing what the Triage X manga is all about. Justice is black and white, and the action sequences are a bit cliched, but good fun. Sure, there is an element of objectifying women, but the characters themselves and strong, independent, and interesting. It’s also nice having some rat-bastard villains, it’s too bad Black Label is so good at killing them off so quickly.
I had some minor issues with the tonal inconsistency and emotionally psychotic nature of the manga at times, but at least so far, Xebec’s version has ironed out a lot of those creases and made the anime feel tone consistent and emotionally balanced. (Though I could have done without Arashi’s cheesy speech at the end of the episode.) The anime feels a lot less serious than the manga did, which is a good thing I think. Striking a kind of self-depreciating tone like a Robert Rodriguez flick is probably the right way to do this kind of material.
I’m not trying to hype this show, but I am personally enjoying it quite a bit so far. It’s really rare to see ecchi take the form of an action anime these days, and so far Triage X is quietly doing a great job of it.
